How My New York "Thing" Got Started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         I am often asked this question by people, who are surprised by my answer.  While it is true, I wanted to play the Winter Garden on Broadway, and be the next BARBRA, live in the Dakota, and have "Breakfast At Tiffany's," my drive to New York was unintentionally started by my own mother.

                                            I can still recall snippets of my pre-school days.  There I would be in our sun porch, (what we called the living room) sitting at my little play table, with the TV blaring children's programs and sitcoms--"Captain Kangaroo," "My Little Margie," and, of course, "I Love Lucy!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                              When the commercials came on, often a Disney movie would be advertised, to which I would yell out, "I want to see it!"  Each time, my mother would answer, "That is in New York," as though it was verboten to go there.  The more I heard this statement, the more I wanted to see New York.

                                                  The first time I did, driving into the city with my parents in the car, in between them, thanks to a car seat, and we emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel, I knew this was so different from where I had come from, at that age, I just knew I had to be a part of it.  Long before I discovered I was gay, in which case I felt there was no other place for me.

                                                     But I must credit my mother for starting me on my journey to New York.

                                                     Maybe she already knew some things I did not!